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The Compliance Department, with the assistance
of the APEGGA Enforcement Review Committee, continues working
towards Council's goal of 100-per-cent compliance with the
licensing requirements of the EGGP Act. Total compliance would
mean:
- all individuals practicing engineering, geology or geophysics
in Alberta are licensed and using proper titles
- all corporations, partnerships or other entities practicing
one or all of the professions in Alberta use proper titles
and hold a permit to practice.
We're undertaking various programs to achieve Council's objective.
One program is the investigation of cancelled permits to practice.
Increased resources have made it possible for us to be more
proactive on this front.
New permits are regularly being approved, while some existing
permits are being cancelled. These cancellations by the Registration
Department occur for various reasons, including non-payment
of annual fees, failure to submit an annual report, and in
response to a voluntary request by the permit holder. A responsible
member leaving a company can trigger a cancellation. Sometimes
one permit-holding company merges with another, so one of
them no longer practices.
Usually these reasons are legitimate. Sometimes, however,
it is not totally clear if the activities of the permit holder
have changed. In those cases, the Registration Department
forwards the file to the Compliance Department. A compliance
consultant then investigates.
Often, the investigation reveals that the activities of the
company have not changed, and the permit requires reinstatement.
The Compliance Department will serve notice, and usually the
deficiencies are rectified and the permit is reinstated. If
a resolution cannot be achieved, even after consultation,
it may be necessary to serve notice that legal action will
be pursued under the EGGP Act. This takes the form of a criminal
prosecution under Section 81, or a civil injunction under
Section 9.
The department is currently pursuing serious legal action
in three cases.
| Department Statistics |
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| Investigations Conducted (first nine months of
2002) |
545 |
| Cases Resolved |
466 |
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| Resolution Reasons |
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| Individuals Applied for Personal Registration |
96 |
| rmits to Practice Issued or Reinstated |
69 |
| Individuals Ceased Using Non-conforming
Titles |
28 |
| Companies Ceased Using Non-conforming
Titles |
8 |
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|
| After concluding
investigations, the remaining cases were resolved
for a variety of reasons. Among these: companies
or individuals were determined not to be engaging
in the practice; companies merged with another permit
holding company or otherwise ceased to operate;
companies relocated their Yellow Pages listing from
a restricted heading to an unrestricted, more appropriate
one; individuals confirmed that they are already
registered with APEGGA, not living or practicing
in Alberta, or both. |
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Frequently Asked Question
Q. Who requires a permit
to practice?
A. The EGGP Act requires that all partnerships,
corporations and other such entities engaged in
the practice of engineering, geology or geophysics
in the province of Alberta have a permit to practice.
A common misconception is that the permit is not
a requirement for individual corporations and
is only required for consultants. Not so. The
act does not differentiate between companies by
size or by whether they're practicing for internal
or external purposes.
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